Forbidden World

A mutating glob of garbage with teeth terrorizes a spaceship full of (often naked) scientists who are looking to end a galactic food shortage, and only the sexiest will survive, in this ultra-cheap, ultra-gory Alien rip-off from the Roger Corman factory! In Forbidden World (originally released to theatres as Mutant, and never to be confused with the ‘50s sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet), an intergalactic butt-kicker named Colby (Jesse Vint, Deathsport) is summoned to a food-engineering research lab on a remote planet to investigate an experiment that “got loose.” And also, presumably, to kick its butt. It seems that the gooey genetic experiment “Subject 20,” as it’s called, has mutated, escaped, and is now busy chowing down on the scientists who created it. Of course, all of this interstellar mayhem doesn’t deter butt-kicking Colby from devoting his studly attention to the two attractive (and shower-loving) female scientists, who, when they’re not working on their important research, are cavorting naked with one another and trying to evade the slimy clutches of Subject 20. As the creature gets bigger and gooier, the terror theoretically grows, leading to one of the most bizarre sick-joke endings in schlock movie history, one that caused drive-in audiences everywhere to leap from their vehicles and scream “WTF?” Recycling sets from Corman’s OTHER Alien rip-off from the previous year, Galaxy of Terror, and haphazardly reusing scenes from the ever-thrifty producer’s 1980 sci-fi flick Battle Beyond the Stars, Forbidden World (directed by Corman vet Allan Holzman, who also blessed the world with Crazy Mama and Candy Stripe Nurses) is an outrageously gross, violent and shamelessly entertaining monster mash that definitely delivers the B-movie goods. Best enjoyed with a cold brew and a brain clot. (Dir. by Allan Holzman, 1982, USA, 77 mins., Rated R) Digital